1822 May 13

Q. Does not the consideration derived from custom present a

sufficient reason for the exclusion here in question

A. Certainly not: for the times in which custom had its commencement

were times of barbarian immaturity, inferior to the present in all points bearing

relation to government. Forms of Governments in general, and the feudal Government

/form/ in particular had their origin in war and conquest In war necessity gave the

command of all to a single chief; in peace, which in those days was never free from

apprehensions of war, habit and providence /prudence/ concurred in keeping it in the

same hands. The female sex at all ages less fit for war than the male, is during the

time of fertility rendered in a more particular degree unfit by the weaknesses

attached to gestation and parturition and lactation.

When monarchical despotism received for the first time its mitigation

from a sort of humble and servile democracy operating by delegation, it was because

the continually experienced impossibility of extracting money time enough from

unwilling contributors drove them into the practice of trying to extract it from

willing ones, who thereupon received /were raised/ a certain degree of importance,

and in return for money to receive a certain degree of effective power disguised

under the appearance of humble influence. These male slaves, heads of the several

families possessed in small measure /quantity/ /degree/ of appropriate aptitude,

their female slaves, their female relatives, none. To the males of the /each/ family

the fatigue and perils of journeys to and from the seat of husbandry and traffic to

the seat of power were endurable, to the females not. /unendurable./ From an /a

delegated/ assembly composed of males and females promiscuously nothing but confusion

and ridicule could have ensued. Thus it was that political power in all its forms and

degrees came to be engrossed by the males.
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    Description: 1822 May 29

    Economy etc

    In comparison of the male sex by physical constitution, the female

    sex is in a variety of particulars rendered generally unfit for war: witness in

    particular the times of gestation, parturition, childbed. But in England as in every

    country the original state of man in so far back as history presents it to us has

    been a state of war. The more barbarous the more savage the state of the human mind

    the worse of course has been every the condition of the weaker sex. Injustice and

    Harshness to the weak is among the most prominent characters of primaeval barbarism:

    justice and mildness to /towards/ the weak has every where encreased in proportion as

    civilization has advanced

    Not but that in England as elsewhere, the history of war has

    presented at one time or other the spectacle of a female leader. But in the most

    perfect form of ordinary war the place of the leader usually is as it usually ought

    to be, in comparison of all others a place of safety. By no state of society has any

    such scene ever been presented as that of an army or so much as any part of an army

    composed either in the whole or in any part (individual and undetected intruders

    excepted) composed of females

    In Saxon times no females in any Wittenagemote

    In Norman times no females in any Council of Barons

    No females in that House, which ere the modern and new rotten

    mushroom sprung up was the only one

    In the infancy of the Lower House /Assembly/ when the chief and at first almost the

    sole business of it was to afford /yield/ money, or rather to afford /yield/ wool

    that money might be made of it the ascendant of the male sex was in all matters so

    universal, that for any town to look upon an agent of this sex as possessing any

    chance of being received with any degree of seriousness, received in an assembly of

    which the vast majority to say no more were sure to be exclusively composed of the

    other was out of all probability. Thus commenced /began the reign of custom -/ the

    exclusionary custom, and in that Assembly no individual interest tending to produce

    rebellion to that <...> <...> <...> the

    same blind cause that has kept political power in the hands of one individual of /in/

    the whole community /species/ has kept it out of the hands of one half of the whole

    species.
  • Title: [1822 May 13 Economy etc Q.]
    Description: 1822 May 13

    Economy etc

    Q. Does the greatest happiness principle require that the female sex

    should be excluded from a participation in this function?

    A. /A. Not any more than males./ Yes: if /No: unless/ persons of the

    female sex are not members of the community if their happiness forms no portion of

    the universal happiness - their interest of the universal interest: or the state of

    their minds such as to demonstate them to be irremediably incapable of taking

    /incapacitated from giving/ the direction to their own conduct without detriment to

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    assigned/ why in respect of that branch of appropriate aptitude this half of the

    species ought to be deemed inferior to the other. Of experience - of experience /of

    experience as far as it goes/ as applied to the highest situation in the scale of

    power operative power the decision is rather /more/ in favour rather of the female

    sex than of the male. In no two male reigns was England as prosperous as in the two

    female reigns of Elizabeth and Ann. As to Ann whatever was the cause it was more

    prosperous than that of her immediate male predecessor, a man as unamiable as she was

    amiable. In intellectual aptitude Elizabeth of England shewed herself in an

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    her male and adult predecessors. If Ann was weak she was not more so than her two

    immediate successors both males. If Mary put men to death for what was called

    religion so did her father, and so did her next male successor: if Queen Mary put men

    to death for what was called religion, so did Chief Justice Hale, the saint and hero

    of English lawyers, for what was called Witchcraft.

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    thought and action at large two points require to be considered, in the first place

    among writers for example in how small a degree the superiority is on the side of the

    male sex. in the next place how small the number of those of the female sex whom laws

    and institutions have left unexcluded from the competition in comparison of those

    whom they have excluded.

    They might be unapt for exercise of supreme operative power or a

    share in it, and yet not be so for exercise of constitutive power in relation to

    supreme operative power. But they can not be unapt for exercise of supreme

    constitutive power i.e. constitutive power with relation to supreme operative power,

    and at the same time apt with relation to supreme operative power.
  • Title: [1818 Jan 3 Not Paul III. Doctrine]
    Description: 1818 Jan 3

    Not Paul

    III. Doctrine

    Ch. Asceticism

    ยง. 2. Females slighted

    Upon a closer inspection it will be seen that from the eccentric propensity the

    influence of the female sex has more to gain than to lose.

    Rival compared with rival much more formidable to the wedded female is a person of

    her own sex than any person of the opposite sex can ever be. The space in the field

    of life to which the eccentric propensity commonly applies itself is extremely

    limited /narrow/. In the days of imperial Rome, when all matters of this sort were

    settled by established custom, and where a seraglio /harem/ of the male sex formed an

    ordinary part of the establishment of a man of rank and opulence, no sooner had a

    member of such a fraternity /an establishment/ passed his twentieth year that he

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    these same eyes the duration of those of the female has as every one knows no bounds.

    It is in the place of the venal female only and not in the place of her of whose

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    permanent by law that those of the male venal or not venal were ever seen to

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